Gensokyo Railway Series 3 (Shiro the 5100)
by Pergold
Summary: Shiro is an engine that lives in Gensokyo, he might not be as strong as the other engines. But he always manages to make things work.
1. Prologue

Nitori was holding up a map, she put it down on a table a pointed at a certain area. She suggested a few adjustments, a gang of kappa were working tirelessly, they were building the extension towards the Forest of Magic. One group poured ballast while the group behind them placed down the ties, another final group placed and riveted the steel rails in place. This system had made work go by quickly...if it weren't for some magician who kept stealing all the tools and some of the materials.

"If only Marisa could stop stealing everything, we would have been done already." Nitori said to herself.

That was when the blonde youkai appeared.

"Hello Yukari, what brings you over here." Nitori said.

"I was checking on progress, I assume things are going well... _aren't they_?" the youkai stressed the ending of her sentence.

"Things are progressing, but Marisa keeps stealing our things!" Nitori replied.

"I'll make sure she doesn't bother you." said the youkai ominously.

Nitori shrugged off what the youkai was suggesting. After all, the youkai had the power to bend fate and was responsible for a few incidents. Though, ever since the railway came into being, she hadn't really thought of pulling her tricks and causing a youkai incident. That is until now.

The blonde youkai went into a gap and disappeared. Nitori went back to her work. The thought of the blonde youkai doing something as to trigger a youkai incident never passed through her head as she was busy dealing with the line's construction.


	2. Shiro and the Magician

Shiro helped pull the cars of ballast and dissembled track to the place where the worker gangs were building the new line. He was careful not to shunt or push the trucks too hard as there was only a temporary buffer at where the line ended wasn't as strong and couldn't hold back a surging consist of heavy ballast trucks. Shiro also took the workers back and forth.

But every morning he'd hear the workers complain about things not being where they were left before. As construction went on, the returning worker would bring in new tools and installed locks on all the boxes that where at the site.

"Its that pesky magician pulling her tricks again." said a kappa in particular.

Shiro overheard her and asked her a question.

"What's a magician?"

"A magician is someone who works with magic and make queer potions and such." the kappa answered.

"But this one in particular is yabona! She comes in and steals our tools, we're lucky she hasn't gone and stole any of the signaling equipment." she continued.

Nitori Kawashiro, the head engineer, called for one of the shrine maidens to guard the equipment. One in particular, Reimu Hakurei, took the job and stayed the night.

When Shiro came back the next night, she was asleep, and whatever wasn't locked up or too heavy was taken. Shiro was mad at the miko.

"You noroma! You let the magician take the kappa's things!" Shiro scolded Reimu.

"So? It was dark and boring. I got tired and fell asleep, what did you expect?!" said Reimu.

"That you would do your job properly." Shiro responding to what Reimu had said.

"By the way, can you take me back to the shrine? I'm still tired."

"Fine Ms. Hakurei, you can ride in the coaches I took the workers in." said Shiro.

The workers were erecting a signal, they hooked it up to the nearby signal box. The line was almost finished, the station at the end still needed construction, but the ballast laying was just about done. But the next night, the magician came by and ripped out the cables that linked the signal to the signal box. When the next morning, a youkai came into the signal box and test it, it didn't respond. Shiro was coming down the track and passed by and headed to where the kappas were laying the rails. Shiro kept a good lookout but his eyes caught a woman with a large black hat, sifting through an unlock box. Shiro blew his whistle.

"Stop! Thief!" He yelled.

The magician jumped! But Shiro didn't notice that the temporary buffers had also been stolen, Shiro stopped but the lack of any buffers made so Shiro's front bogie derailed. The startled magician made her way to the front of Shiro.

"So that's what that thing was for." she said.

"Stop right there!" said Shiro

"What your matter? _da ze_."

"You were stealing their tools, you stole the buffers, _you_ caused a derailment!" said Shiro, caustically.

"So your the one stealing our tools!" said one kappa.

"Your the one that broke our new signal!" said another.

"Um...Uh...I gotta go." the magician said before flying off on her broom.

She fired a beam from a little device and nearly blasted one of the coaches.

"That blasted woman is trying to master spark us!" said the same kappa as before.

She was gone, the gang continued to work on the track. But the very next day, all the missing tools and the buffers came back. A note was handed to one of the workers by a youkai with nine fox tails behind her back.

"Seems like the magician did return everything!" said the kappa with the letter.

The workers cheered as finally they could work and not get worried about thieft. Shiro couldn't have been more glad.


	3. Yuyuko On The Line

Every Saturday, Shiro takes a train to the Human Village, its usually loaded with animals and produce to sold at the markets. Shiro was making his way to the Human Village when one of the couplings broke. Some youkai who weren't used to the trains crowded around the rear car and break van, leaving the guard behind. Shiro didn't realize what had happened until got to the station.

"Stupid couplings." said the driver.

"Knew it should have been better checked."

The bigger engines made fun of him.

"I can't believe you didn't feel that!" laughed Hiroto.

"Yeah, those youkai must've stolen your cars!" chortled Kenta.

"Enough! Could happen to any engine." said a fed up Shiro.

Hiroto was pulling a train to the Moriya shrine, when he spotted something on the line ahead.

"Woah, stop driver." said Hiroto.

There on the line was a woman, sleeping between the two tracks.

"Hey! Wake up! Go away! Shoo! Shoo!" said Hiroto.

Kenta came by on the other track heading back from the shrine. He too noticed the woman sleeping on the tracks. He also tried to wake her up and shoo her away.

"Hey debu, wake up and leave already!" said Kenta.

Kenta finally gave after whitsling at her. Be began his way back to the shrine's station.

"I don't want to hurt her." said Kenta.

When Kenta got back and his driver told the stationmaster about what had happened.

"Oh. That's Yuyuko Saigyouji, she must have passed out on a food coma again. I'll call for Youmu to come get her." said the stationmaster.

Akemi brought Youmu and she managed to wake Yuyuko up and leave. The two left on Akemi's train. Akemi made a promise to Hiroto and Kenta about not telling what had happened. But a cheeky tengu spread the story around.

"Some debu on the line, heard she was bigger than you were, Hiroto." teased Shiro.

"Its like what you said, things do happen to anyone and this was no exection." defended Hiroto.

"Ah, that's true. Sorry about teasing you about it." said Shiro.

The two forgave each other and went on with their day.


	4. Old Iron

One day, Akemi was waiting for Shiro to arrive. He grumbled when Shiro came late. Akemi complained about it to the other engines.

"He's as good as old iron if he keeps making me late!" He said.

"Don't say that, he could beat you in a race any day." said Ichihiro.

The other engine had respect for Shiro, but Akemi was upset.

The next day, Akemi's driver felt ill and had to step out of the cab. His fireman went to talk with the yardmaster and had find another driver. Akemi waited in the yard. But a fairy went and fiddled with his controls, the fairy made his whistle blow and that alerted the yardmaster and the firewoman. The two ran towards the locomotive, but the fairy was startled that it started to move and jumped out. Akemi was now a runaway.

"Quick! Get another engine, we need to chase this one down." yelled the yardmaster.

The head engineer got a coil of rope and boarded with Akemi's firewoman into Shiro, who was available at the time.

Akemi thundered down the line helplessly, he had no crew at his controls.

"Help! Help! I can't stop!" He yelled as he sped down the line.

Shiro was catching up to him, it was hard work but soon he caught up to him. Nitori climbed beside his boiler and hung a noose over one of Akemi's buffers.

"Got it!" She said after getting the rope over the buffer.

She tied it to Shiro's buffer and jumped into Akemi's cab. Just before she could pull the regulator, a magician riding a broom pull beside the engine.

"I'll be borrowing this, _da ze_." the magician said.

"No you won't Marisa." said Nitori.

She picked up the firewoman's shovel and hit it against the magician's head as hard as she could. The magician was knocked off her broom and lay unconscious by the side of the track. Nitori went back to moderating Akemi's speed.

The two engines were now moving at a slower pace side-by-side.

"I'm sorry, I was made at you." said Akemi.

"No problem, I understood that you were mad." said an out of breath Shiro.

The two engines went to a nearby station, and their was the Scarlet Controller.

"I'm quite surprised that you could go that fast." said the Scarlet Controller.

"Anyway, good work on the crew's part for such a rescue. Shiro, I'll see that you are tended to." she continued.

"Thank you, sir." said Shiro.

"Whoever made Akemi, did she get caught?" asked the Scarlet Controller.

"No, but it was only Cirno." said the firewoman.

The engines were glad that the incident was over.


	5. Shiro's Exploit

Shiro was at the station with some of the other engines. He was having a hard time moving a large passenger train.

"He can't do. His design is too old." said Hiroto.

"Yes he can do it." said Akemi.

"Shut...up!" said a struggling Shiro.

Soon Shiro making his way to the Hakurei shrine station. It was Aki Matsuri, it was a Shinto fall festival, both shrines we're trying to outdo each other thanks to their newfound revenue from the railway. The trains were crowded and they made the coaches feel very heavy. Shiro made his way to the station, almost out of puff.

"Ah, made it." he said with relief.

The passengers disembarked and Shiro brought the train around the loop and brought the train back to the station to load on more passengers. When Shiro was making his way back to the Human Village, it started to rain. Shiro was expending a lot of his energy trying to grip the wet rails and carry the heavy load. Suddenly, with a loud crack, he stopped. His driver looked over him.

"That's done it." she said.

"One of your crank pins snapped off, one of your coupling rods won't work."

"Oh no, how will the passengers get home?" said a worried Shiro.

"I know, I'll disconnect your other coupling rod and you'll have to run like a 4-2-0." said the driver.

The other coupling rod was dismounted and the driver and firewoman made adjustments to the coaches' couplings so they could be pulled like trucks.

"Are you sure you can make it now?" asked his driver.

"I'll see if I can." replied Shiro.

The train was slow moving at first, but the train picked up speed. Shiro had to work twice as hard as before. Soon he back at the station, the Scarlet Controller was there, she pointed at the clock. Shiro was late. But word got around that Shiro did it whilst broken down. The passengers thanked Shiro for what an engine he was.

"You wait here Shiro. I'll send for an engine to send you to Nitori. There you should be mended." the Scarlet Controller said.

Shiro was too out of breath to reply. Kenta came and pulled him to the works to be fixed. That night, the engine had more respect for Shiro than they ever had.


	6. Epilogue

"Why did you try to steal a train?!" asked Reimu.

"They were big and made of metal. I just only wanted to take them apart for anything I might find to be cool." said the magician.

"I'm telling you this now, there is no hihi'irokane in them!" said a flustered Reimu.

"How else do they talk and have conversations with the other youkai?" said the magician back at Reimu.

"I don't know how they did it Marisa." said Reimu.

"But maybe this book would." said the magician, pulling out a small, old book.

She opened the old book and read the first few lines.

" _An engine was attached to a train, who was afraid of a few drops of rain. He went into a tunnel and squeaked through his funnel and wouldn't come out again._ " she read.

"Yeah, that explains _everything_!" said Reimu, sarcastically.

"Well I bought it at kourindou, its from the outside world, _da ze_." explained Marisa.

"I'll bet." said Reimu.

"Who wrote that piece of junk?"

"Its says 'Rev. W. Awdry'." the magician told her.

"He sounds western." said Reimu.

The two talked on and on about the mystery that is the railway in Gensokyo. It was still a mystery to them about how the locomotives can have emotions and the ability to speak. Not knowing that these were artificial youkai and that Gensokyo isn't the first to have such.


End file.
